Shareholders reject plans to sell Berlin's Adlon Hotel

The planned sale of Berlin's landmark Hotel Adlon has fallen through after shareholders failed to give the deal the required backing, property firm Jagdfeld said.

While some 86% of the shareholders in the Adlon Fund voted in favour of the sale, they hold only 71.04% of the shares. A 75% majority was required for the transaction to go ahead.

The luxury hotel in central Berlin is owned through Fundus-Fonds 31, which is managed by the Jagdfeld Group. The fund, and therefore the Adlon, is owned by around 4,000 shareholders, most of them private investors.

Jagdfeld said last month that it planned to sell the hotel for at least €280 million ($322 million), arguing that many of the investors had reached a stage in life where they wanted to cash out their holdings.

Despite the failure to secure the necessary majority, Jagdfeld described the vote as an "overwhelming mandate to revisit the sale now.

"Now is the right time for the company to sell. This is the only way to ensure that the small-scale investors who were involved from the start - many of whom are now 80 years old and who, for lack of alternatives, are helpless on their own - get what they are entitled to," the statement said.

Larger shareholders in particular had rejected the sale beforehand, criticizing the staggered profit-sharing arrangement for Jagdfeld. 

Under the plans, the company would receive 20% of the excess proceeds should the purchase price exceed €310 million, according to media reports.

The grand hotel in Berlin, founded almost 120 years ago by Lorenz Adlon, was burnt down in 1945, with only one side wing surviving, and was completely demolished in 1984.

In the 1990s, the hotel was rebuilt according to the original plans and reopened on August 23, 1997.

The hotel has hosted many high-profile guests over the years, including former US president Barack Obama.

The current lease runs until the end of 2032 and is unaffected by the sale plans.